


While you're making other plans

by vivianblakesunrisebay



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Boys In Love, Episode: s06e12 The Pitch, Episode: s06e13 Start Spreading the News, Fluff, M/M, Patrick is a planner, Pouty muffin eating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-06-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24652042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivianblakesunrisebay/pseuds/vivianblakesunrisebay
Summary: Patrick, alone with his muffin, thinks about New York. An episode coda to The Pitch/Start Spreading the News.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 64
Kudos: 205





	While you're making other plans

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my wonderful betas, missgeevious and likerealpeopledo!

Patrick was in the back room of Rose Apothecary, eating a blueberry muffin he didn’t even want. Hiding. He’d admit that. 

David had surprised him, is all.

Sometimes, Patrick liked surprises. Loved them, in fact. To have something presented to you fully formed, already done, so you didn’t have to worry or think about it at all, was such a _relief._

Because ordinarily—as he fully admitted—he planned and analyzed everything in his life to the last detail. And Patrick could get, maybe, a little too attached to his plans going the way he had envisioned. To the point of maybe getting a little upset about it when they didn’t. Maybe more than a little upset.

David would tease him about it, saying, “I’m the rigid and uncompromising one, remember?” And yes, David was—about some things. All the things David cared so passionately about, the aesthetics of the store, the details of their wedding, Patrick was mostly happy to let him have his way. Of course, Patrick also liked to tease him about it, just for the pleasure of seeing David get worked up.

David sometimes said Patrick was easygoing, when he wasn’t accusing him of being rigid and an overplanner. “How can I be both, David?” 

“You are, though,” David said airily, waving a hand. “You contain multitudes.”

Patrick wasn’t easygoing, he knew he wasn’t, even though people thought he was, sometimes. His whole life, nothing had felt easy. That was how he thought of himself; he was the guy who _put in the effort._ He worked hard to be good at sports even though he was usually the shortest guy on the team. He worked hard in school, because when he studied, he did well; and when he didn’t, his grades went down accordingly. He had friends who could waltz into a final exam without studying at all and somehow ace it. That wasn’t him. So he studied, and it paid off. He was gifted in music but he worked hard there, too—took guitar lessons, learned to dance well enough on his tree trunk legs so he was reliably cast as the lead in school musicals.

Patrick Brewer, athlete, mathlete, captain of the baseball team, musical theater guy, straight A’s in math, B’s in everything else. All because he put in the time and effort.

He was also Rachel’s boyfriend: more effort. But he had been happy, most of the time, to put in the work. Why should his relationship be any different than any other aspect of his life? He approached it like he prepared for his musicals. You hit your mark, you said your lines; you tried to sell it. He bought flowers on Valentine’s day and jewelry on birthdays; they had date night every Saturday and sex once a week. When things exploded, sometimes, in fights and breakups that didn’t make sense to him, he put in the effort to put the pieces back together. 

Until one day he didn’t. 

It was the side of him that liked surprises, he supposed, that ran away from everything and started a new life in a small town with a crazy sign. Looking back, he still didn’t understand how the Patrick he thought he had been, the Patrick he still was, had done such a crazy, unprecedented thing, but he was grateful to him, because it led him to the one easy thing in his life.

Falling in love with David Rose. 

It had happened right away. That was, perhaps, crazy, certainly crazy for someone like him. But something in him recognized something in David, immediately; and without any effort on his part, without trying at all, without him even being aware of it, he’d fallen fast and hard. 

Love at first sight.

David had loved that, when Patrick had finally told him, months and months later, how David had taken his breath away at that first meeting, how Patrick had been in love before he even knew what to call it. _That’s so romantic,_ David said. 

It wasn’t, though. It was just a fact. 

It hadn’t actually been easy, after that, of course. Patrick had been a tangle of nerves and hormones and overthinking and trying to process his own internal sexual revolution. But what set it all off, the falling for David part? That was the easiest thing he’d ever done.

*

David shouldn’t have sprung this New York thing on him, like it was a done deal. But that wasn’t why Patrick was hiding. He could talk to David about that, point out that they should make this decision together. And David would agree, and probably apologize, and they would work it out.

He also was not hiding because he didn’t like New York. He didn’t know if he liked New York or not. He’d never thought about living there. No, Patrick realized, the reason he was sulking over this blueberry muffin is that he had had a plan, and David had just thrown a big, New York-size monkey wrench in it.

He’d been planning a surprise, a big one. 

David said he himself didn’t like surprises, but that wasn’t quite true. He liked some surprises. Unlike Patrick, he didn’t like, say, surprise parties. A party, for David, involved controlling the guest list and the food and the decoration, and making sure his hair and outfit were on point. For Patrick, David’s various looks ranged from gorgeous to super gorgeous to jaw-droppingly gorgeous, but David had specific preferences for how he presented himself to the world, and Patrick respected that.

But David did like romantic surprises, grand gestures like in his rom coms. Patrick had studied and paid attention to find the exact dimensions of the type of surprises David liked, the ones that made his eyes soften and his mouth give that little half smile and made Patrick feel like the sun was coming out.

(That was another thing David said was romantic. It wasn’t. Just a fact.)

Take the open mic night. Patrick was very pleased with how that had come off. He’d taken a chance, then. They’d only been together three months, but Patrick had noticed that while David strongly objected to his monthly anniversary gifts, he’d also seemed secretly pleased. It was also hard to miss his all-consuming love of romantic comedies. So Patrick had taken a chance at a romantic gesture, and he pulled it off. He’d never forget how David looked at him when he sang to him that night, and he wouldn’t soon forget the sex they’d had that night either. Talk about a grand gesture.

He’d pulled off plenty of little romantic surprises after that, but the next big one wasn’t until the proposal. And Patrick didn’t feel like he’d pulled that off. David was so happy after the fact that he declared the whole thing perfect, but Patrick wasn’t inclined to let himself off so easy. 

His first mistake, in retrospect, had been only thinking of his own preferences. He got excited about the picnic and the view and how that hike had special meaning for him, and he glossed over the fact that David didn’t like hiking. His second mistake was he’d gotten too attached to his own plan, so that when it started to go wrong he overreacted, he lost sight of the big picture. But David had saved it, like he always did when Patrick freaked out. He’d made everything better, and reminded Patrick all over again why he wanted to propose in the first place. (That’s the kind of thing he thought about when people said David was selfish. They were idiots.)

So, okay, in the end it had been kind of perfect, but still, Patrick knew that he’d almost blown it by being too attached to his own vision of how something was going to go.

David didn’t know about the surprise. Obviously. That’s what made it a surprise.

Surprising David with the Holiday cottage, as Patrick thought of it, had been in the works for months. Patrick had been planning to reveal it as a wedding present, a few days before the wedding. 

Of course, a big purchase like a house, you couldn’t actually buy it, without consulting your life partner. They needed to apply for the loan with you, for one thing. There were grand gestures, and then there was being responsible at life. However, you could do everything else, up to that point. You could knock on the door and ask the owner to let you know if they ever considered selling. You could politely ask for a tour, and even more politely request to see the repair history of the house. You could consult with David’s best friend when the owners let you know that in fact, they do plan to sell, and you could quietly plan a romantic evening that culminated in driving by the house. “It’s ours, if you want it,” you’d say, and wait for that look in David’s eye, the soft, tender one, the one that was almost disbelieving, like David couldn’t believe his luck—all the time knowing you were the lucky one.

(Again, not romantic. Just a fact.)

Ever since Patrick had found David, he had found joy in being able to look ahead and see their happiness ahead of time, being able to anticipate and plan for every curve in the road. But there was another part of him, the part of him that loved surprises, the part of him that fell in love with David Rose at first sight, and that part of him knew one true fact: that as long as he was with David, everything else would fall into place.

He ate the rest of the muffin. David's muffin. He deserved it. He had a plan, now. 

*

Patrick researched New York City. He put together a plan for what Rose Apothecary might look like in New York. He talked with Mr. Rose about the Rosebud motel expansion plans and the revenue being their main supplier would generate for Rose Apothecary. He looked forward to being able to regularly go to major league baseball games and professional theater productions. He’d go with David to museums and galleries and restaurants. They’d still be close to Alexis. The pros on Patrick’s mental pro and con list multiplied. He started to see the details of this future take shape, different than the one he had imagined, but still theirs, with its own rewards, its own benefits.

But then, a few days later, David put a blindfold on him, and took him in the car, and walked him out by his shoulders and took the blindfold off, and showed Patrick the future, brighter and even more precious because it was being given back to him. Patrick had planned to surprise David, but David had surprised him, as he always did. 

Patrick took David in his arms, he kissed him, he vowed to make him happy, but he wouldn’t make any other plans just now. Because he’d just realized something: this future, too, would be full of surprises, bends in the road, twists and turns that he couldn’t foresee and couldn’t plan for. 

But that was okay. It was going to be amazing, because he was with David, who loved him, and who Patrick loved as easily as breathing.

Fact.


End file.
